Oklahoma City home inspection: Keep your home safe

During a routine Oklahoma City home inspection, the outside of your home gets checked just as thoroughly as the inside. Did you know foundation issues may be the cause of your raised flower bed? Oh yes, Oklahoma City home inspections bring me to see many interesting things! When you build your landscape higher than your home, it can cause problems. The issue here is water.

Not only are you watering your plants, but you let mother nature’s rain do some watering, too. It’s great for the plants, but if your flower bed is higher than your home you will be watering your house, too. In my experience with Oklahoma City home inspection, I have seen the side effects of too much water entering a home’s foundation. What happens is that the stone and brick hold on to water, because they are porous materials. Then, the water just penetrates inside the stone or brick which can cause damage to the home.

Water build up can cause problems such as cracked or damaged foundation, infestations of mosquitoes and other insects, mold, erosion of topsoil that protects your foundation, staining to the exterior of your home, paint damage and even damage to your plants. As you can imagine, the damage caused by water entering the base of the home could be very costly to the home owner. If you have a basement, water could be slowly leaking into the basement.

I take Oklahoma City home inspections very seriously and I hope you’ll consider taking this advice to think twice before building your landscape higher than the level of your house. If you’re thinking about selling your home in the future, having flatter landscaping will work to your advantage and avoid the problems outlined above.

Give me a call (405-301-3321) to find out more, or if you feel you need an Oklahoma City home inspection!

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Edmond home inspections: Increasing attic safety

In my many adventures of Edmond home inspections, I have seen quite a few unsafe attic spaces. It is important to know that sometimes the building code is not retroactive, because many homes would be in violation of the building code each time the code was updated. Of course, I wouldn’t be doing my job on Edmond home inspections if I didn’t check the attic. Even if you aren’t selling your home or don’t have to worry about being up to code, it’s still a good idea to be safe! If you ask any fireman with experience, they are sure to tell you that firestops are a life saver.

As I kick off another month of Edmond home inspections, I just know there are going to be some attics out there that don’t have firestops. It’s important to have firestops, because without them, the space between each wall stud will act as a funnel and accelerate the flames of a fire. The concept of firestops seems like it would be self-explanatory, right? It is as easy as that, in fact. Firestops do what their name suggests; they halt the spread of fire from one section of a structure to another. Perhaps you’d like to check in and see if you have firestops. As your leading lady for Edmond home inspections, I’m here to keep you informed. Here are a few things fire stops can be made from:

1.) Firestop mortar: Cements made from lightweight aggregate.
2.) Intumescent: Flame-retardant materials, such as graphite, hydrates, and sodium silicates.
3.) Firestop pillows: These items contain various flame-retardant and intumescent substances, such as rockwool or graphite. They are filled loosely inside of a fiberglass fabric case that resembles a small pillow.

Firestop pillows can be combined with other fire stopping materials and be inserted into openings in firewalls. Together or separate they can all be helpful in stopping the spread of fire. I hope that after reading a little more about attic firestops, you will come to understand why they are a necessary safety feature. Give me a call (405-301-3321) to find out more, or if you feel you need an Edmond home inspection!